Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Best Days

Many, many nights before I close my eyes, I look back and think, "This was a good day." Any days spent in the company of one or all of my Kids are the best of all, and yesterday was one of those. Deb and Craig timed it perfectly and arrived shortly after I'd finished in the barn. I'd come into a windfall of avocados and mushrooms, so we spent time in the kitchen while I made a huge bowl of guacamole (there's never enough guacamole!) and my helpers sliced a ton of crimini mushrooms to dehydrate. There's something about the kitchen, any kitchen, that stimulates conversation, not that we needed any help in that direction; there was a lot to catch up on.

After a late lunch-early dinner (what Judy calls "linner"), we went out into a perfect afternoon to check on the animals and fowl and walk around to enjoy the fall day since we're due to go back up into the 90s again next week. Deb and Craig had brought a gift of bulbs, two hundred bulbs to be exact. Ground squirrels and voles have eaten their fill of every bulb but daffodils I've ever planted in the ground, so we worked our way around the deck, filling pot after pot with white, pink, lavender, and purple scilla and anemone bulbs. There are no greater optimists than gardeners. We stick little dried knobs and seeds in the dirt and envision banks of flowers and baskets of vegetables. What would have been a daunting task alone went quickly and pleasantly in company. Many of the pots were in the vicinity of the feeders, and we were constantly buzzed and dive-bombed by the hummers who resented the invasion of their territory.

Inevitably, sundown came, delay it as I would. Tail lights down the drive, "Love you!" in the air. It was a perfect day.